{"id":178716,"date":"2021-07-05T23:55:05","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T06:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=178716"},"modified":"2021-08-07T14:36:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T21:36:44","slug":"suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit Targets Sports Betting Provision in Amended Florida Tribal Compact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two affiliated gaming companies are going to court to quash parts of the amended gaming compact Florida legislators approved in May. That deal would give the Seminole Tribe of Florida exclusive statewide rights on sports betting, including mobile access.<\/p>\n

\"Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. hold a finalized copy of the amended gaming compact between the state and the tribe during a signing ceremony in April. Last week, two Florida commercial gaming properties filed a lawsuit against the sports betting provisions of the deal. (Image: Gov. Ron DeSantis\/Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

West Flagler Associates, Ltd., which operates the Magic City Casino in Miami, and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., which operates the Bonita Springs Poker Room, filed the suit in the US District Courthouse in Tallahassee on Friday. It named Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Julie Brown.<\/p>\n

Both gaming entities are owned by Southwest Florida Enterprises Inc.<\/p>\n

DeSantis negotiated the amended tribal gaming compact with the Seminoles in April. If approved by the US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Brown would be responsible for overseeing the approved compact.<\/p>\n

\n

At the heart of the lawsuit, the casino and poker room claim the amended agreement runs afoul of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). That law claims that tribal nations have the right to operate gaming on their lands provided that the activity is legal under federal law and allowed by the state.\u00a0The suit states that the IGRA allows for tribal gaming to only take place on tribal lands. Further, it cites a state law passed 11 years ago that allowed for tribal casinos only on sovereign territory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The casino and the poker room want the court to bar the \u201coff-reservation sports betting provisions\u201d of both the compact and the state implementation law from being enacted. They also seek an injunction against DeSantis that would keep him from working with Seminole authorities in getting federal approval for the compact.<\/p>\n

A message to DeSantis\u2019 office was not returned Monday.<\/p>\n

Sports Betting Lawsuit May Be Pre-Emptive Strike<\/h2>\n

The agreement with the Seminoles\u00a0guarantees the state $2.5 billion in revenue<\/a> over the next five years in return for allowing the Seminoles to construct three more casinos and offer more table games, as well as sports betting.<\/p>\n

Not only does it allow them to offer mobile sports betting if that\u2019s deemed legal, but it also allows them to negotiate with pari-mutuel gaming facilities, like Magic City and Bonita Springs, for the right to have betting kiosks at their facilities. Magic City operates a jai-alai fronton, while Bonita Springs has a racing and jai-alai simulcasting center.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Seminoles sent Magic City a letter inquiring about its interest in offering sports betting. According to the June 24 letter, a copy of which was filed with the suit, Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen gave Magic City until next Monday (July 12) to respond.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs state that if they choose not to participate, or if they\u2019re unable to reach an agreement with tribal leaders they become \u201cshut out\u201d of the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, the pari-mutuels will not only lose the walk-in traffic on which their business models are based, which will ultimately affect their revenue from slot machines, card rooms, and pari-mutuel wagering, as well as the ancillary entertainment and dining options offered to patrons of their facilities \u2013 but they are also being denied the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with the Tribe,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n

Florida-based gaming law attorney Daniel Wallach, who first reported the news of the lawsuit on Twitter, noted that the lawsuit may be focused on keeping a severability provision in the compact from being enacted that would benefit the tribe, which operates seven Hard Rock casinos in the state.<\/p>\n

\n

In other words, the intended audience for this pre-approval lawsuit may very well be Secretary Haaland, in order to persuade her to reject the compact, thereby preventing the severability clause from creating a brick-and-mortar monopoly on Indian lands,\u201d Wallach tweeted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The lawsuit likely won’t be the only challenge the compact faces. Anti-gaming advocates say the bill goes against a 2018 state constitutional amendment that requires voter approval to authorize commercial casino gaming in the state. In addition, sports betting operators FanDuel and DraftKings have teamed up to push for a referendum<\/a> on the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n

Congress May Clarify Tribal Access to Online Market<\/h2>\n

A day before the lawsuit was filed, two US congressmen sponsored a bill in the House of Representatives<\/a> that may make the Florida sports betting lawsuit moot.<\/p>\n

US Reps. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) and John Katko (R-NY) filed HR 4308<\/a> Thursday, which would allow tribal casinos to offer online gaming by updating the IGRA. In remarks to Congress on the bill, Correa said there have been questions about whether the 33-year-old federal law would cover online gaming activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill would clarify that for purposes of tribal government gaming, the location of the wager occurs at the location of the server, unless a state and Indian tribe otherwise agree,\u201d Correa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two affiliated gaming companies are going to court to quash parts of the amended gaming compact Florida legislators approved in May. That deal would give the Seminole Tribe of Florida exclusive statewide rights on sports betting, including mobile access. West Flagler Associates, Ltd., which operates the Magic City Casino in Miami, and the Bonita-Fort Myers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":178717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1074,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSuit Targets Sports Betting Provision in Amended Florida Tribal Compact<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Florida company wants a federal judge to bar the Seminole Tribe from being able to offer sports betting across the state.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suit Targets Sports Betting Provision in Amended Florida Tribal Compact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Florida company wants a federal judge to bar the Seminole Tribe from being able to offer sports betting across the state.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-06T06:55:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-07T21:36:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/EzrPVwLWUAAxMQb-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/\",\"name\":\"Suit Targets Sports Betting Provision in Amended Florida Tribal Compact\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/EzrPVwLWUAAxMQb-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-06T06:55:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-07T21:36:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"A Florida company wants a federal judge to bar the Seminole Tribe from being able to offer sports betting across the state.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suit-targets-sports-betting-provision-in-amended-florida-tribal-compact\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/EzrPVwLWUAAxMQb-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/EzrPVwLWUAAxMQb-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Florida Gov. 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He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. 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